Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Otorhinolaryngology and Phoniatrics journal is indexed in EBSCO Academic Search Ultimate, EXCERPTA MEDICA/EMBASE, INIS ATOMINDEX and BIBLIOGRAPHIA MEDICA ČECHOSLOVACA.

Abbreviation for citations: Otorinolaryngol Fonyatr
Journal language: Czech, Slovak, English
ISSN: 1210-7867 (Print)
ISSN for online access: ISSN 1805-4528 (Online)

The Otorhinolaryngology and Phoniatrics journal offers original papers, research results and comprehensive reports.

Especially, it includes information on the surgical therapy of tumourous diseases of the ENT organs, including major salivary glands, surgical and microsurgical issues of changes in the temporal bone area, paranasal sinuses, larynx and soft tissues in the neck, functional diagnosis and rehabilitation of hearing, voice and speech disorders, vertiginous conditions, smell impairments and issues of inflammatory complications during inflammations in the ENT area.

The journal is an important source of information and aid for postgraduate education for the physicians in this field of medicine.

Articles should be original and contain facts that have not been published elsewhere. Findings that have previously been published in an unreviewed form, or as abstracts, may be conditionally accepted for publication. Articles in Czech, Slovak, and English are accepted. These are submitted electronically in MS Word or RTF format.

Guidelines for submitting articles in the new Open Journal System
Dear authors,
Thank you for choosing Otorhinolaryngology and Phoniatrics for the publication of your article.
Since 1 January 2020, a new online editorial system, the Open Journal System (OJS), has been in operation. This system, among other things, allows you to follow the progress of your paper through the editorial process. Previously submitted papers remain at the original web address.
Submitting a paper in the editorial system is an easy four-step process that the system itself will guide you through. The procedure for submitting an article is as follows:
If you have not yet worked in the editorial system and therefore have no user account, you must first register.
Enter www.orlaf.cz in your internet search engine. Here, you will find a link that will take you to the OJS (via https://redakce.carecomm.cz/orlaf), or you can go directly to the new OJS web page and click “Register”. Fill in the registration form (consent to the processing of personal data needs to be checked, and if you wish to be a reviewer for our journal, this last box should also be checked).
Confirmation of your registration will be automatically e-mailed to the address you have provided, along with a recap of your username and password. You can then log in to the system using that username and password.
After you log in, the home page will open.
You can submit a paper by clicking on the Papers link in the top menu. Here you will find a link to [Submit a new paper] or [View your papers in progress] and full instructions for authors.
Submitting a paper is a 4-step process: 1. START THE SUBMISSION, 2. UPLOAD YOUR PAPER, 3. FILL IN THE METADATA, 4. CONFIRMATION:
 
Step 1. Start the submission
Select the section and language of the paper and confirm by checking the 6 declarations that are necessary for the paper to be accepted into the process. The declaration on Conflicts of Interest is very important. For example:

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the article/manuscript complies with ethical standards, patient anonymity has been respected, and they state that they have no financial, advisory or other commercial interests in relation to the subject matter.
Publication Ethics: This article/manuscript has not been published or is currently being submitted for another review. The authors agree to publish their names and e-mails in the published article/manuscript.
Dedication: The article/manuscript is not supported by a grant nor has it been created with the support of any company.
The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE “uniform requirements” for biomedical papers.

Or:
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the article/manuscript complies with ethical standards, patient anonymity has been respected, and they state that they have no financial, advisory or other commercial interests in relation to the subject matter.
Publication Ethics: This article/manuscript has not been published or is currently being submitted for another review. The authors agree to publish their name and e-mail in the published article/ manuscript.
Dedication: This work was supported by the Ministry of Health, Czech Republic – conceptual development of research organization (xxx, 123456789).
The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE “uniform requirements” for biomedical papers.

Click “Save and continue”.
 
Step 2. Upload your paper
On this page, click “Upload file” to open the window used to upload all the individual components of the article (the anonymised text of the article, title page, cover letter, figures, tables, other attachments). Select the appropriate article component, upload the file and click “Continue”. After checking the uploaded file, click “Finish” and then click “Add another file” to repeat the process with the other article components.
Figures – Image attachments should be sent electronically in tiff, eps, or jpg format. Figures must be submitted at the required print quality (the image must not be out of focus at 100% magnification) as follows:

• a figure the width of one journal column must be at least 700 pixels (6 cm) wide;
• a figure the width of two journal columns must be at least 1,500 pixels (12.5 cm) wide;
• a figure the width of three journal columns must be at least 2,200 pixels (18.5 cm) wide.

Tables – Tables can be created using an editable Microsoft Word file (or another spreadsheet editor, e.g. MS Excel). Tables must not be created in an uneditable file (bmp, jpg, etc.). The same applies to graphs.
Once the files are uploaded, you can continue by clicking “Save and continue”.
 
Step 3. Fill in the metadata
Fill in basic information about the article: the title and abstract in Czech and English, the ful. names of all authors (including ORCIDs), the language of the paper, key words, and supporting institutions (grants). With the authors, please select which author is the main contact, i.e. the corresponding author.
Abstract (summary) – for original papers and review papers, a summary of 150–250 words is required, and for original papers it should be divided into: Background, Aim, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
Keywords – 3–6 term keywords included in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus and their Czech translation, MeSH-CZ.
Once completed, click “Save and continue”.
 
Step 4. Confirmation
Your paper has been uploaded and is ready to be submitted. To complete the process, click “Submit paper”. The author who has been selected as the main contact will receive an email confirmation that the paper has been submitted in the system and will be able to follow the progress of the paper through the editorial process after logging in to the journal website. Upon acceptance, the article will be further processed by the editorial office and, after all editorial work and proofreading, a preview of your article will be emailed to you and you will be asked to proofread and approve the edited version for publication.
If you have any questions or notice any discrepancies, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following email address: katerina.michnova@carecomm.cz
 
We look forward to working with you
 
Editor-in-Chief's contact details:
Prof. Jaromír Astl, MD, PhD.
Department of ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and Maxilofacial Surgery
3rd Medical Faculty, Charles University and Military University Hospital Prague
U Vojenské nemocnice 1200
169 02 Praha 6
jaromir.astl@uvn.cz

GENERAL INFORMATION
The editorial board accepts original papers for publication, in Czech, Slovak and English. It also accepts the results of clinical studies, articles for post-graduate lifelong learning (continuing medical education CME), well-arranged articles about current topical problems, case studies, reports from congresses, reports from study stays abroad, book reviews, reports on the activities of professional ENT companies, reports about the jubilees of eminent personalities in the field and notifications about upcoming congresses and symposiums. It further publishes comments on papers from other journals, observations, opinions, discussions on interesting topics, personal messages and letters from the editors.
Manuscript preparation is based on the relevant CSN standards and the recommended procedure of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).

Requirements for professional publications
The work shall include original scientific communications which are: original work, an overview, case reports and work of a postgraduate training nature. All of these forms of scientific text have their own specifics corresponding to the internal structure, which must be respected. An informed consent and/or ethics committee approval must be dealt with. Research involving laboratory animals must state that the project COMPLIED with the requirements for research involving laboratory animals and was approved by a pertinent committee for research involving laboratory animals. There are no requirements for structure of review papers and case studies, although it is recommended to start with an Introduction and further divide manuscripts into logical chapters.

1. Original work
   A paper in which the author presents his/her findings gained from experimental or clinical studies. Original work is divided into these basic components: an introduction, the patient set and methodology (materials and methods), results, discussion, conclusion and literature. The work is accompanied by a structured summary in Czech/Slovak and English.
   • a) The introduction serves as a basic introduction to the issue, and/or the reasons that led the author to carry out the work. It gives the hypothesis, which should be confirmed or refuted.
   • b) The patient set and methodology (materials and methods) is the part that should provide basic information about the main characteristics of the patient set; in the case of experimental or theoretical studies, then also about the material the author evaluated. In the description of the method it is necessary to describe the procedure precisely (e.g. indications, treatment process, follow-up treatment) and an integral part of this part of the work is also the method of assessment, i.e. what and how the author assessed it.
   • c) Results. This part of the original work must contain the facts found by the study, i.e. answers to the questions put in the previous section (set, methods).
   • d) The discussion serves to analyse the results and compare them with the work of other authors dealing with the same issue.
   • e) The conclusion summarises the study’s importance and states whether the objectives listed at the beginning were achieved or whether the original hypothesis is confirmed or refuted.
   • f) The literature (see below in more detail).

5 to 10 pages of text and 20 to 30 citations are recommended for original work. No more than 6 authors.

2. A review article
   A paper written by an experienced and well-known author in the issue at the request of the head editor or co-editor of the journal’s relevant section. The author’s opinion on the topic must be evident in the approach. The work gives an overview on the current situation in the chosen issue, including controversial opinions. It includes a list of the literature. The work should contain an unstructured summary in Czech/Slovak and English. A review article should have 5 to 10 pages of text, the literature should not exceed 30 citations. Number of authors 1, exceptionally 1–2 other co-workers.
   
   3. Case report
   A professional communication consisting of an introduction, a description of the case or cases, a discussion and a bibliography. It is accompanied by an unstructured summary in Czech/Slovak and English (see summaries). For a scientific work such as a case report the recommended scope is a maximum of 5 pages of text and 10–15 citations. The number of authors is 2 at most, for more workplaces 3.

4. Work of a post-graduate nature (post-grad training, guidelines, current concept)
   Texts of this type will be published at the behest of the head editor. Upon agreement with the author, they should include comprehensive processing of a basic issue in ENT, including developments in the given area, the current state and modern trends.  The bibliography is to contain both the cited literature and the recommended literature. It does not require a summary. The extent should be up to 10 pages of text.
   
   The standard setting for the manuscript is 30 lines per page, double spacing, 2.5 cm margins.  The text should be processed using a standard text editor in the .doc or .rtf formats, recommended font Times New Roman, font size 12. Pages are numbered in the lower right corner.
   The spacebar should not be used at all for formatting the document (!)  nor should every line be ended with Enter. When writing it is necessary to pay attention to confusing the letter ‘O’ with the number ‘0’, similarly the letter ‘l’ with the number ‘1’ , etc.; although these characters look similar in certain fonts, when changed into a different font these similarities cease to exist.

COMPONENTS OF THE WORKS PUBLISHED
Cover page - contains the work’s name in Czech/Slovak and English (the name should be apt and brief due to searching - the editors reserve the right to shorten or edit the name upon agreement with the author), the authors’ names, the names of authors’ workplaces and a contact for the main author (full name incl. titles, workplace name, workplace address and mail address) The cover page must list all the financial resources used to carry out the work.
A summary - for each original work a structured summary is required in Czech or Slovak and English. It gives the reader a synopsis of the paper. The summary must not contain references to images and tables, the recommended range is 150–250 words.

The summary is divided into the following sections:
Introduction - briefly describe the work’s aims and state the hypothesis under investigation.
Methods - characterise the set monitored, how they were selected or excluded from the monitoring.  The characteristics and a description of the method used to tackle the issue, the assessment methodology, a description of the procedure.
Results - the results obtained including numerical values.
Discussion - a comparison of the results with the conclusions and results of other quoted authors.
Conclusions - the conclusions the author makes from the work, a summary of the most important points.
Key words - in Czech or Slovak and English, without using abbreviations, 3–6, at least 3 of those listed by Index Medicus

Image documentation - must be essentially original. The number of images should be in accordance with the scale of the work (at most up to 10 attachments).  In general images cannot be taken from other work published in a journal or book. The publication of non-original images is only possible after redrawing with the text: according to (name of the original image’s author). Use of images from other publications is only possible with the agreement of the copyright holder - mostly the original author and publisher (respecting copyright law).
Annexes numbered in the order in which they are quoted in the text. Images should be delivered in the requisite print quality with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, and a minimum width of 1 500 pixels. Tables should be created using MS Word or MS Excel and delivered in this format (do not convert to a non-editable form of an image). Similarly graphs and charts should be delivered in editable form (MS Excel) including source data. Graphic files created using statistical programs (e.g. Statsoft STATISTICA and others) should be sent in normal vector formats (e.g. emf, wmf, svg, etc. ), DO NOT send them in the format MS Word!  Descriptions of images, graphs, tables, diagrams and photographs must be given in both Czech/Slovak and in English. If symbols, arrows, numbers or letters are used to describe part of an image, please explain them in the legend.
The text must contain references to any graphs, pictures, photos or tables in the following form: (Graph 1), (Fig. 1), (Tab. 1).

Bibliography - the literature is arranged in ascending numerical order, which must match the order of the quote in the text. The principle used is that authors quoted in the text must be listed in the bibliography and vice versa. Only work directly connected to the published work should be quoted. The manner of quoting literature must be in accordance with the standard ISO 690 and adapted to the format for citations in the MEDLINE/PubMED database (see examples).
All the authors are given up to three. If there is a larger number of authors, the first three are given followed by the abbreviation: ‘et al’. Abbreviations of journals must comply with internationally valid abbreviations. At the end of a quote give the pages and DOI number, if the paper has one. Work in press and/or sent for publication may be included in the list of citations. At least 1/3 of the citations should not be older than 5 years.
Citing of reviewed domestic literature is required. The editorial board recommends citing Czech and Slovak work dealing with the given topic. An overview of them is given by the database BMČ of the National Medical Library. Likewise the editorial board requests authors also quote papers published in the journal ORL. The citation rate of work from GH is a recognition of the journal’s professional level.

Citation format:
Original and review work:
Parkin DM, Clayton D, Black RJ et al. Childhood – leukaemia in Europe after Chernobyl: 5 year follow-up. Br J Cancer 1996; 73 (1): 1006–1012. Doi: xxxx. 

Chapters from books:
Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM (eds). Hypertension: pathophysiology, dia­gnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press 1995: 465–478. 

Webpages:
Košťálová M. Screening afázie: MASZcz. [on-line]. Dostupné z URL: http: //www.fnbrno.cz/nemocnice-bohunice/neurologicka-klinika/screening-afazie-mastcz/t3305. 

DELIVERING WORK FOR PRINTING
The editorial board accepts work electronically via the Open Journal System (OJS): https://redakce.carecomm.cz/orlaf. The first author, who likewise submits a text for the peer review is responsible for the linguistic aspects of the work and becomes the editorial board’s contact person. The OJS is used to upload:
• the work with the bibliography in the aforementioned structure
• image documentation, additional annexes
• a structured summary for original works or a summary for reviews and case reports (Czech/Slovak and English), keywords are also a part of this (Czech/Slovak and English)
• The following are attached to original work:
• a declarations of the work’s originality and visual documentation confirmed by the authors in the OJS

Work sent will undergo a review process in terms of content and form. Work not meeting the journal’s criteria will be returned for reprocessing, if appropriate, completely rejected. The author will be informed by mail about rejecting or accepting the work. The editors correspond exclusively with the first, correspondent author.

Submit manuscripts to the editors only through the website:

https://redakce.carecomm.cz/orlaf